 Throughout my life, I've increasingly found that reading scripture in public isn't just about feeding our own spirits and minds. It's about rehearsing the mighty acts of God for God's glory. So let's think together about Isaiah 6, 13. And first we're going to need some tea. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again like a terribinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. That's a rather puzzling passage at the end of a dramatic chapter, Isaiah 6. We often hear that read out in church, at least the earlier part of the chapter, because it's the great vision when Isaiah finds himself in the temple, and suddenly he sees the Lord himself, and he hears the angel singing, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts. And Isaiah says, woe is me, I'm undone, etc. And the story is well known. An angel flies to him and says, well, actually this has touched your mouth and your iniquity is purged. And then he hears God saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And Isaiah responds, here I am, send me. That's the point at which people normally cut off the chapter. That's the comfortable bit, the exciting bit, the bit about God calling us to his service, and saying, I've got a job for you to do. And that's always an exciting thing. But the passage goes on, and it leads to the verse I just read. And interestingly, it's the next bit of the passage from verses 9 onwards, which are quoted in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Acts, and referred to in Romans for good measure, because Isaiah's message is anything but comfortable. It's not a nice, exciting, OK, we're going to have fun together thing. God says to Isaiah, this is the message that I have for the people. Keep listening, but do not understand. Keep looking, but don't comprehend. Make the mind of this people dull. The problem is that the people of Israel in Isaiah's day were so rebellious, had spent so long, so many generations turning themselves away from following God, that now they've become hard-hearted, and God's only word to them then seemed to be a word of judgment. The judgment which says that you'll be like a great tree, which is going to be cut down, and that even if a tenth part remains in that tree, it will be burned again, like a terribinth or an oak. We're going to get rid of this tree, and the stump remains standing when it's fell. Well, maybe there will be a stump. And then the holy seed is its stump. Here is the extraordinary image which Isaiah has, following on, of course, from the sense that he was hearing a word of judgment on himself, which then turned into a word of mercy and fresh commissioning. That there is a way forward. There will be a message of hope, and we see that again and again in the prophet Isaiah as a whole. But it's a message of hope which we hear through and out the other side of this word of judgment. The holy seed is its stump. God has to do the work of judgment, but the work of judgment is not, okay, we're scrapping that and going to do something totally different. It's a word of judgment which is also a word of purification, a word which says there is something new and God will do that new thing, but it will happen only through and out the other side of judgment. It's fascinating to me that when Jesus refers to Isaiah chapter 6 in Mark chapter 4 when he tells the story of the sower, the parable of the sower, and he says that this is why he's teaching in parables so that they may look and look but never see and hear and hear but never understand in other words, just like Isaiah's message. It is precisely a story of the seed. The seed which is sown, the seed which goes to waste, the seed which seems to be eaten by birds and taken away, but ultimately there will be good seed that will bear fruit, 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold. And I think Jesus has in mind here this final line of Isaiah 6, the holy seed is its stump. Jesus' message to the people of his day was that God was doing a work of judgment because they had turned their backs on his will. They were not being the light to the nations as they were called to be, but there would be hope because the seed was indeed being sown and Jesus himself draws that picture of the seed onto himself in John chapter 12 when he says unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just a single seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit. It's as though Jesus, Jesus isn't just proof texting the odd reference here and there, he has the whole sequence of thought in mind because the word which comes at the end of Isaiah 10 is a word of judgment precisely on God lopping the boughs, cutting down the tall trees, hacking the thickets of the forest with an axe, majestic trees falling, just like that bit at the end of Isaiah 6, but then at the beginning of Isaiah 11 a shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, a branch shall grow out of his roots. This is the messianic promise, the spirit of Yahweh will rest upon him and he will bring forth judgment to the nations. This is the story which as we read it with the whole of Scripture in mind, focuses on the dark judgment which falls upon the lonely figure on the cross on Good Friday and then bursts out with new life on Easter day. The holy seed is the stump and says Isaiah, the Messiah rises to rule the nations and in him the nations will hope that's where the message of Isaiah is going. So may God give you courage and confidence to live through the times of darkness and to trust that his new purposes will emerge with the power and strength of the risen Jesus. Amen.